LOS ANGELES–An employee of Pasadena FCU here has released a Christmas album. Johnny Schaefer, the credit union’s marketing and business development director, has combined his love for all things Christmas with his musical skills to create From Here to Nativity, a collection of seven original and seven classic Christmas songs.
Schaefer crowd-funded the project raised nearly $5,000, 10% of which he donated to the Blessed Sacrament Church Choir in Hollywood, where he has been a cantor and soloist since 1981.
Below, Mr. Schaefer shares his thoughts in this Q&A as part of CUToday.info’s The Corner:
CUToday.info: Tell us more about your background and history in music?
Schaefer: I sang my first solo in church at age four, which is also when I “wrote” my first song. My whole family is musical. My brother teaches voice at Cal State University, Fullerton, and sings with the LA Opera. I have a B. A. in Music, composition and voice from Cal State Fullerton. I composed and arranged a concert piece that was performed by my 300-piece high school band my senior year. I have performed in musicals and operas, and sung backup for Josh Groban, Melissa Manchester, Diahann Carroll, Sarah Vaughan and others. I have done extensive studio work, including some children’s television with Mark Mothersbaugh. I have been cantor and bass/baritone soloist at Blessed Sacrament Church in Hollywood, Calif. since 1981. From Here to Nativity is my second album. The first, Acoustic Remedy, featured best-selling author and lecturer Marianne Williamson in a unique way on three songs. She is a longtime friend and gave me access to her recorded lecture material for the project.
CUToday.info: You crowdfunded this project. Tell us more about that process, whether you’ve done it before, and for those unfamiliar with the related expenses of music production, where the funds go?
Schaefer: I used Fundly.com and highly recommend them. It was my first crowdfund, but my church choir has used them. Fundly does not require you to hit your goal and they allow you to transfer the funds directly into your checking account as you go, which was perfect for me as I recorded the album. We made it very personal. I am fortunate, because I am married to a videographer/editor, who makes most of my videos. We aimed for making the fans feel like they were a part of something special.
In the initial intro video we explained that there is much more to recording an album than most people know, such as paying song licensing fees on covers, paying each musician, studio time, transport fees for large instruments like a harp, mixing all the tracks once they are recorded, mastering, photography, album art and design, website and social media, promotion, videos, fees for UPC bar code, ISRC codes and much more.
We recorded videos as we went so the fans could see where their money was going in real time through e-mail updates. The “perks” were mostly related to orders of the album and a Christmas ornament that matches the cover.
CUToday.info: You have in your career worked with a number of well-known performers and producers. What can you tell us about some of the people with whom you have worked, and how you became involved with them?
Schaefer: One hears horror stories, but I’ve been lucky. Grammy-winner Melissa Manchester, in particular, is a beautiful soul. Her music was always a beacon of light to me in dark times. I used to write songs and send them to her on cassette tapes. Her assistants thought it was cute and passed them along. When I was in college I started studying with her voice teacher. To be honest, I used to purposefully schedule my lessons adjacent to hers. Then she asked me to sing for a demo project. We recorded at Melissa’s home and she cooked dinner, giving me tea out of her favorite mug. I was so nervous that she finally had to help me carve the chicken she had placed in front of me because there was this little mangled pile and everyone else was waiting.
Then, a few years ago, I was chair of the Patrons of the Performing Arts Group at a community college and brought Melissa to perform under the sponsorship of a credit union I worked for at the time. Since then I have sung backup for her and was a winner in her recent cover contest. Melissa was one of the first contributors to my Fundly campaign!
CUToday.info: How long have you been thinking about and working on this particular holiday album? How did it evolve, and how long does it take?
Schaefer: I have wanted to record a Christmas album for many years. Christmas and music are my two favorite things! Plus, my music is very eclectic, which lends itself very well to Christmas music. The album is a blend of seven original and seven traditional songs. It begins in advent and runs through Christmas Eve and Day and on to Epiphany. It has medieval songs, folk songs, a jazz waltz, a dance-pop tune, classical music, a Carlos Santana-influenced song about the Rosca de Reyes, and a 50s rock-n-roll song. You can get away with that more easily on a Christmas album.
I started recording and crowd-funding in July and we went to press the second week of November, It was a whirlwind, because we also went through our first core conversion in 30 years at the credit union, but it was maybe the happiest project of my life.
CUToday.info: You noted you are known as the “face of the credit union.” Is there any cross over or cross-pollination between your credit union career and music career?
Schaefer: I really try to keep my worlds separate, because it’s cleaner, but overlap happens. At work I am known as John and in my music I go by Johnny, which works well for the most part. I recorded a couple of songs for phenomenal kids’ financial literacy guru Sam Renick a few years ago. We love His Sammy Rabbit character and it was an honor to sing on his album about Wants vs. Needs and saving. I also occasionally sing the National Anthem at Chamber events as a credit union employee.
I get to be really creative in general as the marketing director. I make so many connections through both music and the credit union that there is often some overlap. I met one of my current co-workers singing in a church choir years ago. I donate CDs at chamber events or for charity raffles. As I mentioned earlier, I was chair of the Patrons of the Performing Arts while working for a former credit union and was able to produce a concert for my favorite singer, a win for everyone!
CUToday.info: Bonus, optional question: If you could write a credit union theme song, what would it be?
Schaefer: Like most of life, really, success for credit unions is about building and maintaining relationships. In a strong relationship, communication is key. You can't slack off. Can't stay stationary. You need to assess the other person's needs and make adjustments as you go. It's important to make the person feel loved all the time. I do think that applying those principles to our relationship with our members makes sense. What does making our members feel loved look like? So a good credit union song would make people want to create and keep a relationship with a credit union.
Here are links to three videos of Mr. Schaefer and his music:
*Video for All the Babes on Christmas Born can be found here
* Video for Ave Maria (Bach-Gounod) can be found here
* And video for People Look East can be found here